PM urges report on Ho Chi Minh City's two key metro lines

The Hanoitimes - The Prime Minister has just asked the city authorities to submit a report to the Ministry of Transport (MoT) on adjusting investment on its two key metro line projects.

The reports from Ho Chi Minh City would be the foundation for the appraisal of the two projects.
Conducted by Japanese ODA funding, Metro Line No.1 stretching from Ben Thanh market to Suoi Tien Theme Park and Metro Line No.2 connecting Ben Thanh and Tham Luong are among the city’s key construction projects.

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As newly announced on the government portal, MoT under the Prime Minister’s assignment, would carefully review and appraise these projects’ total investment and submit its findings to the government no later than March 20, 2018.
Accordingly, the PM also assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI) and MoT to build the project funding plan, based on which relevant agencies will optimize the financial sources for the two railways’ construction.
Hence, based on the appraisal of MoF and the state draft report by MoPI, the Government Office will arrange a meeting to consider approving the project, before submitting the report to National Assembly (NA) by March 30, 2018. Both railway projects face shortage of capital and have been delayed.
At the Metro Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien project, the developer has been slow to pay contractors and may have to pay interest on late payment. Ho Chi Minh City offered MoPI advance disbursement for Metro Line No.1, while waiting for the NA’s approval to ensure its completion schedule. The project, if falling behind the schedule, would cause remarkable harm to Vietnamese-Japanese diplomatic ties, as well as ODA funding from the country, according to the Ministry.
As for the Metro line 2, the city also requested the PM to ask the NA’s approval on raising the total investment of the Metro Line No.2 from VND26,000 to 40,000 billion (US$1.14 to 1.76 billion) and extend the completion deadline from 2020 to 2026.